What '60 Minutes' Didn't Tell You About China's Ability To Compete With Hollywood

CBS’ venerable news program 60 Minutes just ran an excellent 13-minute story about China’s booming movie industry. The piece offered a balanced perspective on both the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for what will soon become the world’s biggest movie territory.

But you might have come away from viewing the story with the mistaken impression that China’s movie moguls are on the verge of competing with, and even overtaking, their Hollywood rivals in the global film market. Two executives who were interviewed for the story said as much on camera. But both are dead wrong.

Image credit: CBS News

Specifically, Dennis Wang, who runs China’s powerhouse movie studio Huayi Brothers, responded to CBS news correspondent Holly Williams' question about his ability to make globally competitive blockbusters by saying "I think we'll be doing that in the next one or two years. Maybe in five years we'll be doing it really well.” And late in the story Ms. Williams gave the last word to Dede Nickerson, an American who has been working in China’s movie industry for the past 20 years. Referring to China’s filmmakers she said, “They understand storytelling. They are... super well-versed in what works globally… So I would say...Hollywood, watch out."

To which I would say, "Poppycock.”

Think about it. When was the last time you saw a Chinese-made movie? If you’re not a Chinese speaker, when was the last time you even thought about seeing a Chinese movie? If the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to mind, I’ll remind you that the Ang Lee-directed picture was released 16 years ago, in 2000. And although it was filmed in the Mandarin language, it wasn’t a Chinese movie, but rather a collaboration between American, Taiwanese, and Hong Kongese writers and filmmakers. If it had been made in China, by Chinese filmmakers, you never would have seen it because it would have been a lousy film.

It has been years since China made a movie that any mainstream audience outside the Chinese cultural sphere wanted to pay to see. China has virtually no ability to make globally competitive movies on a consistent basis, or even on an occasional basis, and it will be a long time before it ever will.

Which begs the question, why does China, with the world's largest population, and with a rich artistic and cultural history, have so little ability to reach the level of cinematic achievement that countries like America, Korea, Japan, India, France, Australia, and so many other countries possess? Why, with its government’s desperate desire and enormous financial ability to achieve “soft power” by spreading its cultural influence and ideas around the globe, can’t the Chinese film industry create even a single movie that the world wants to see?